Enhancing Student Learning in a Graduate Course in Manufacturing Technology
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The manufacturing enterprises are facing fierce competition due to globalized marketplace and changing customer demands. In order to stay competitive, the companies are widely adopting modern manufacturing management principles such as lean and six-sigma. This has had repercussion in the academic curriculum as well. More manufacturing engineering and manufacturing technology programs alike have courses in lean manufacturing and six-sigma quality management as a result. However, the actual impact of these efforts can be realized only when an academic unit's "product" (students) can deliver it at the workplace. In order to build a positive student learning in the 21st century world, one needs to follow different and more innovative and active learning approach in the classroom. This paper presents a conceptual framework of student learning lifecycle during a semester long course. The paper uses two distinct case examples to demonstrate the proposed framework for enhancing the student learning in a class room. First example is drawn from a graduate class in manufacturing technology with small class size whereas the second example is from a relatively large sized undergraduate class in industrial distribution program. Both classes are related to quality management and lean six-sigma principles. Few teaching tools used in the proposed framework include interactive lecture notes, videos, daily quizzes, application oriented HW assignment, article review, and real-world case analysis. The paper presents results of student feedback on the various teaching tools used in those classes. The results of the survey showed that student's have learned more as a result of the teaching techniques used. Although individual uses of these techniques are not new, this paper presents a noble approach to enhance the student learning by integrating them into a learning lifecycle framework. In addition to students learning, the paper discuses benefits of integration of applied research and teaching for faculty scholarship and curriculum improvement. American Society for Engineering Education, 2013.
